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Students use cell phones to screen rare eye cancer in Delhi, here’s how you can too check yours
“The screening test is so simple. We just have to click the photograph of the child with the red-eye correction switched off. If there is a white reflection, then we ask the families to take the children to Centre for Sight.”
Armed with cell phone cameras, various college students from the city have been screening young children for a rare cancer of the eye, Retinoblastoma. The disease is said to affect 1 out of 15,000 persons and 18,000 children usually below the age of six.
Students from Janki Devi Memorial college visit anganwadis and mother and child clinics in the city and click photographs of the children and try to identify any abnornalities.
“The screening test is so simple. We just have to click the photograph of the child with the red-eye correction switched off. If there is a white reflection, then we ask the families to take the children to Centre for Sight,” said Garima Arora, one of the 35 student volunteers nvolved in the screening drives.
“This is the most common malignancy of the eye and the cancer is 100% curable if detected early on, both the life and the vision of the child can be saved. Unfortunately, most people don’t even know about cancer in the eye. And, awareness about Retinoblastoma is low even among doctors, so, most cases come in only after the tumour starts popping out of the eye,” said Dr Vikas Menon, oncologist, Centre for Sight.
The Centre for Sight, an eye hospital network has partnered with the college to give free consultations to the children screened by the student volunteers.The purpose of the screening is also to create awareness.
“When I was a reading about blindness, Icame to know that a simple photograph can help in screening children for a cancer. So we decided to take up the project. So far, the students have screened nearly 4,000 children,” said Nirmala Muralidhar, associate professor, Department of Human Development and Family Empowerment, Janki Devi Memorial college.
“It is a rare cancer, so it is not likely that the volunteers would finda lot of cases. But, the whole point of the exercise is creating awareness among families so that they safeguard their child’s eye health by getting timely eye examination. In fact, there have been people who have come in for consultations and have found out about other eye problems,” said Dr Mahipal Sachdev, chairman and medical director, Centre For Sight.
Lalita, a south Delhi resident, was referred to Centre for Sight after one such screening drive. “One of my daughter’s eye had been removed earlier because of a tumour and then the doctor said that she has it in the other eye too. My daughter is now receiving treatment at Safdarjung hospital,” she said.
Dr Sachdev said that the need for an eye test arises at 1 year of age itself, especially if the child show signs pointing to the disease.
“Parents must check for the whitish reflection in the black part of the eye. This is what the students look for in their camera. Children with Retinoblastoma also usually present with squint, persistent redness and swelling of eyes. If babies show any of these symptoms they should be taken to an eye doctor immediately,” said Dr Menon.
